James H. Harrison

MOUNT PLEASANT - James Hughey Harrison, 96, of Mt. Pleasant, widower of Theo Wells Harrison, died Saturday, June 7, 2014 at the Hospice Center of the Hospice of Charleston. Funeral services will be 2 p.m. Saturday at Corinth Baptist Church, Holly Hill, with Rev. Buddy Locke officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. Mr. Harrison was born in 1917 and spent his early life at Millway Plantation near Bradley, SC. He attended elementary school in Bradley and high school in Greenwood, SC. After high school Jim attended Clemson University and earned a degree in mechanical engineering. During college he learned to fly at the Anderson, SC, airport. After graduation he continued to fly at every opportunity, including delivering airplanes to many sites in the US. When World War II startedbecause he wore glasses and thus couldn't qualify as a combat pilothe signed on as a flight instructor for combat pilots at Hawthorne Aviation near Orangeburg, SC. After the war he joined Trans World Airlines (TWA) and flew as part of the Air Transport Command carrying personnel and materials back from Europe and the Middle East. He continued to fly with TWA, primarily in Super-G Constellations, as they commercialized the trans-Atlantic routes for passenger travel. He married Theo Wells in 1952 and moved to New York, where he was promoted to Captain and flew domestic routes out of Newark airport. He retired from flying in 1965 and in his later years developed an avid interest in boating, dividing his time between Mt. Pleasant and Lake Marion in South Carolina, the St. John's River in Florida, and a family mountain cabin near Brevard, N.C. Surviving are a daughter, Elizabeth Wells Harrison of Mt. Pleasant; a son, Dr. James Hughey (Elizabeth Davis) Harrison, Jr. of Charlottesville, VA; a brother, Frank Harrison of Greenwood; and two grandchildren, Patrick Wells Harrison of Charlottesville, VA, and Rebecca Davis Harrison of Riverside, CA. The family will receive friends in the fellowship hall from 1 to 2 p.m. prior to the funeral. Memorials may be made to Corinth Baptist Church, Organ Fund, PO Box 69, Vance, SC 29163.